INCIHUSA   20883
INSTITUTO DE CIENCIAS HUMANAS, SOCIALES Y AMBIENTALES
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Thermal conditions, comfort degree and environmental benefits of different configurations of squares in arid zones
Autor/es:
SUSANA STOCCO; ERICA CORREA; M.ALICIA CANTÓN
Lugar:
Cancún
Reunión:
Congreso; ISES Solar World Congress 2013; 2013
Resumen:
In arid zones, the greening open spaces constitute a strategy for the thermal conditioning of the cities. In the particular case of Mendoza, Argentina, its urban structure responds to hispanic foundational schema: a central square and four equidistant peripheral squares, with an strong use of vegetation. However the model has weakened due to the process of "modernization" of the open space and the increase of the building density. This process has impacted restraining the environmental performance of the square in the context of the city. The paper discusses how the design and materiality of the open space, determines the thermal behavior, comfort conditions and the environmental efficiency of the "squares" and their environment. It was selected three case studies, and evaluated the thermal behavior of different structures of square present in the city. Spaces were monitored by fixed and mobile measurements during the winter of 2012 and summer of 2013. The measured parameters were: air temperature, relative humidity, mean radiant temperature, solar radiation, speed and direction wind, atmospheric pressure and surface temperature. The measurement points were located in the different structures of the square (forest, meadow and sealing) and its urban environment, along an axis oriented in a north-south sense. Furthermore, in order to evaluate the radiative behavior of the spaces, it was determined the value of the sky view factor (SVF) and it was projected the solar path into a digital hemispherical image, taken for each of the points evaluated. Finally, from the measured data, it was calculated the grade of thermal comfort of the spaces through the CoMFA method. The results show the importance of square as a space for adjustment the thermal conditions of built environment. In terms of cooling the city, during the night, it is observed the importance of the green condition of the space and the need to determine the optimal percentage between the forest area and meadow to enhance the benefits of the square. During the day, in the heating period, the thermal behavior of the space depends almost exclusively on its degree exposure sun. At the macro scale, the square more efficient is that offers the best conditions to favor night cooling in order to mitigate the urban heat island effect. At the micro scale, forest structure has lower temperatures as a result of its shade. The shade condition improves the habitability of the space during the day still when the space is always outside the comfort range. Moreover, is observed that the symmetrical design of squares in the city, predominant pattern, it is not the better configuration to combine in an efficient way the variables involved on the thermal behavior of the square: materiality, vegetation distribution and sun exposure.